Friendly Government, Poor Infrastructure: Bitcoin Has Peculiar Ways in Japan

Despite the government’s friendly regulations towards both Bitcoin startups and services the Japanese Bitcoin infrastructure remains imperfect in comparison to other East Asian countries, including South Korea and Taiwan.
In early 2015, Bitcoin investors and startups were confident that the Japanese Bitcoin industry would establish a solid infrastructure for digital currency users to cash in and out through low-cost and efficient applications.
How is it in other Asian countries?
Countries in Asia such as the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan have Bitcoin payment service providers, exchanges, and applications which enable simplified low-cost trading of Bitcoin.
The Philippines for instance, has Coins.ph, which allows users to cash in and out through any of the region’s bank ATMs. South Korea has Coinplug which enables users to purchase and sell Bitcoin through tens of thousands of convenience stores. Taiwan’s Maicon and BitoEX offers a similar service to Coinplug, which allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin at 10,000 FamilyMart, OK mart, and Hi-Life stores.

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2016-09-03.